He assesses whether home prices are overvalued or undervalued relative to their fundamental value by comparing prices today with historical prices, incomes, and rents. Incomes, he notes, “determine how much people can pay for housing, and price increases aren't sustainable if they push prices too high relative to incomes.”

The formula gets a bit complicated, but Mr. Kolko produces a list of the 10 cities in which home prices currently are most undervalued — a list dominated by Ohio cities.

Las Vegas, with home prices relative to fundamentals of -24%, is the most undervalued housing market, followed by Detroit, at 23% below fundamentals. Akron and Cleveland are tied for fourth, at -21%. Toledo is eighth, at -18%, and Dayton is ninth, at -17%.

If prices were to keep rising as fast as they are today, “we'd be back in bubble territory in several years,” Mr. Kolko writes. However, prices are unlikely to keep rising as fast as they are now for three reasons: inventory should expand, mortgage rates should rise and investor interest should fade.

The post examines how Ferchill Group and Cleveland's Kaczmar Architects solved some of the room and common space design challenges that had thwarted previous efforts to redevelop the massive structure, which, when built in the 1920s, was the world's tallest hotel.

“One of the biggest considerations that had frustrated numerous prior attempts at redevelopment had been the hotel's configuration; the rooms simply didn't meet the size standards for today's hotel patrons, by either a luxury or budget hotel classification,” according to the post. “This situation — coupled with the catastrophic economic decline of Detroit in the second half of the 20th century — killed the hotel's profitability by the early 1980s and forced developers to question how it could ever return to viability.”

But American Dirt says Kaczmar “found a solution, which manifests itself when one investigates the details to the typical room in the renovated Westin.”

By today's standards, a room in the hotel “appears unusually narrow — almost claustrophobic,” according to the post. “Yet continuing the unadorned motif almost helps to mitigate the narrowness: if the designer had filled the walls with decorative bric-a-brac, the space would feel cluttered and even constraining.”

There's quite a bit more analysis, which is worthwhile if you're interested in hotel architecture/design and the economics of reviving old downtown buildings.

Modest improvement: Cleveland economist George Zeller finds that Cuyahoga County is on an impressive winning streak.

Inflation-adjusted May sales tax collections in Cuyahoga County were up 1.62% from May 2012. It also marks 32 consecutive months in which the local sales tax has generated an inflation-adjusted increase — a clear sign of improving conditions for consumers.

However, Dr. Zeller notes that the recovery “continues to be extremely slow,” and Cuyahoga County and Ohio “need a vigorous recovery, not a slow recovery, to make up for extremely large previous losses in employment, earnings and sales tax collection levels” during the recession.

The voice: A Cleveland Clinic doctor is quoted in this Bloomberg story about Google CEO Larry Page, who disclosed a health condition that can result in hoarse speech and labored breathing.

Mr. Page has been diagnosed with left vocal cord paralysis, a condition that affects movement of the left vocal cord. The malady “can make it hard for the Google co-founder to exercise at peak capacity and limits his participation in some company events, such as quarterly conference calls,” Bloomberg says.

Although Mr. Page is able to handle all functions of his job, treatment options are tricky, according to the story.

“When both vocal cords are paralyzed and positioned closely together, a surgeon might perform a procedure known as a tracheotomy, making an incision in the front of the neck and inserting a breathing tube to restore air flow,” Bloomberg notes.

“If they are close together, the person will have trouble breathing, and if they are really far apart, the person will have trouble speaking,” says Michel Benninger, chairman of the Head and Neck Institute at the Clinic. “You either have no voice or no airway.”

“Drivers who fill up their tanks every week probably noticed a recent jump in the cost of gasoline,” The Wall Street Journal reports. “Indeed, the average price for a gallon of regular gas is $3.58, which is six cents higher than a week ago, marking the biggest weekly increase since February. The current average is four cents higher than a month ago.”

Rising crude-oil prices and tight supplies are among the factors that have recently pushed prices higher at the pump, according to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

The recent trend toward higher prices has affected most states, “with only West Virginia and Ohio posting lower prices now than a week ago,” the story notes. Prices in six states — Oregon, Minnesota, Washington, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Iowa — have jumped by more than 20 cents.

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